Tulsi Gabbard’s arrival at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. So cool!
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Source here.
Month: February 2025
bookmark_borderMy open letter to Gov. Youngkin regarding HB1699
Unfortunately, bigots and bullies in the Virginia legislature – who believe, apparently, that everyone who is different from the norm should be obliterated from existence – passed a bill known as HB1699. You can read about this disgusting, unconscionable, and immoral bill here. (I guess I don’t make reading about it seem very appealing when I describe it that way, but describing it with milder language would be inaccurate.)
I wrote the below email to Governor Glenn Youngkin, encouraging him to veto this bill:
Dear Governor Youngkin:I am writing to respectfully ask that you please veto bill HB1699. This bill is mean-spirited, cruel, discriminatory, and hurtful. I am on the autism spectrum, and my special interest is history. What makes history so important to me is that it includes stories and perspectives from a wide array of different people. Confederate history is part of history. People who fought for the Confederacy deserve to be honored just as much as anyone else does. Their stories deserve to be told, and their history preserved, just as much as anyone else’s. It is unconscionable that, after years of the most brutal and vicious attacks imaginable on Confederate historical figures, a bill would be introduced that would hurt lovers of Confederate history even more than we have already been hurt. Bill HB1699 would personally hurt me as an autistic person who loves history. It’s beyond upsetting that a bill such as this would even be under consideration. Please, please veto this horrible bill.Sincerely,Marissa
I highly encourage you to do the same. You can contact Governor Youngkin by…
Email: glenn.youngkin@governor.virginia.gov
Phone: (804) 786-2211
Or mail:
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 1475
Richmond, VA 23218
P.O. Box 1475
Richmond, VA 23218
bookmark_borderTrump signs executive order withholding funds from schools that require covid vaccine
On February 15, President Trump signed what is perhaps his most awesome executive order yet. It withholds federal funds from schools that force their students to receive the covid vaccine.
According to the text of the order on the White House website:
“It is the policy of my Administration that discretionary Federal funds should not be used to directly or indirectly support or subsidize an educational service agency, State educational agency, local educational agency, elementary school, secondary school, or institution of higher education that requires students to have received a COVID-19 vaccination to attend any in-person education program.”
Trump’s order correctly points out that people should be “empowered with accurate data” and “left free to make their own decisions accordingly,” and that “threatening to shut them out of an education is an intolerable infringement on personal freedom.”
This really shouldn’t be a revolutionary concept. The right to make medical decisions about one’s body is the most fundamental right that there is. And vaccine mandates violate this right. It’s completely unacceptable for any school, employer, or organization to require a medical procedure.
With this executive order, Trump has decided that the federal government will step in and defend people’s rights from schools that would violate them. This is exactly what the federal government should be doing. In fact, it’s what the federal government should have been doing all along.
Despicably, the Biden administration attempted to use the power of OSHA – the Occupational Safety and Health Administration – to force all companies with 100 or more employees to implement vaccine mandates, thereby violating the rights of their employees. This is the literal opposite of what the government should have done. The government should have banned companies from violating the rights of their employees, not required it. Now, under the Trump administration, the government is moving in the direction of what it should have been doing all along. It is punishing institutions that violate people’s rights, thereby providing a deterrent from doing so.
I can’t think of a more important or worthy use of the power of the federal government, than to enforce people’s rights to bodily autonomy. So thank you, President Trump, for standing up for the fundamental right to decline medical intervention.
bookmark_borderPresident Trump at the Daytona 500
bookmark_borderRestricting guns at polling places is not “good news”
Somewhat old news by now, but I agree wholeheartedly with this post from the Firearms Policy Coalition:
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As FPC correctly points out, violating people’s rights is not “good news.”
Additionally, what is striking about Everytown’s post is that they equate the existence of guns with “armed intimidation.” They do realize that a person can possess a gun without using it to intimidate others, right? It’s almost as if it doesn’t occur to them that a person could just…exist. With a gun. Not using it to intimidate anyone. This shouldn’t be a revolutionary concept, but apparently, it is. Having a gun on your person is not the same thing as “armed intimidation.” Possessing a gun, in itself, does not intimidate anyone.
Furthermore, Everytown’s statement that “armed intimidation has no place in our democracy” is another example of the pompous, self-righteous, stuck-up, and condescending attitude that I discussed in an earlier post. What the heck is “our democracy,” anyway? Democracy is a form of government in which decisions are made based on what the majority of people prefer. There’s nothing positive about this. It allows the majority to violate the rights of unpopular minorities. Yet so many people speak of “our democracy” as if it’s something of supreme importance, something sacrosanct, something whose goodness is so obvious that it doesn’t need to be explained. To me, this is just another way of saying, only people like us matter. Only people who act like us, think like us, and live like us. No one else’s feelings, perspectives, viewpoints, or experiences matter. It’s “our” democracy, and everyone else can go to hell. We don’t like guns; therefore no one should be allowed to have them. Who cares about the fact that possessing a gun has no impact on anyone but yourself, and therefore isn’t anyone else’s business? As usual, the basic moral truth that people have a right to do anything that they want to, as long as it doesn’t harm others, is thrown out the window. To the worshippers of “our democracy,” only the majority’s perspective matters. If they don’t like something, then it should be banned. The rights of unpopular minorities – as well as the entire concept of people having rights, for that matter – are completely disregarded.
Enough about your democracy. Individual rights are what actually matter. And banning guns at polling places violates them. This is the opposite of “good news.”
bookmark_borderThe condescending, stuck-up attitude of Gavin Newsom
I saw this post by Charlie Kirk a while back and was struck by the attitude that California Governor Gavin Newsom expresses in the third slide:
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“You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation.”
Excuse me? So because Trump doesn’t share the same beliefs as Newsom, he is “excused” from the conversation?
In other words, Newsom seems to be saying, only people with the same beliefs as him are allowed to participate in the conversation. Only people with the same beliefs as him are allowed to voice their opinions.
News flash: Gavin Newsom does not have the right to dictate who is allowed to participate in a conversation and who is not. He does not have the right to dictate which people are and are not allowed to voice their opinions.
I am so tired of these types of pompous, self-righteous, stuck-up, and condescending statements. People need to actually listen to those who are different from them, or at least respect those who are different from them, rather than mindlessly condemning and shaming them as Newsom does.
bookmark_borderPresident Trump at the Super Bowl
Somewhat old news by now, but President Trump became the first president to attend a Super Bowl. These pictures and videos brought a smile to my face:
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bookmark_borderA Valentine’s Day card from FPC to ATF
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at this one. Beautiful work!
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Source here
bookmark_border“Soooo STUPID”
Defiant L’s captured this horrible tweet back from the times when the federal government was attempting to force all people to undergo a medical procedure:
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Even now, four years later, this tweet is infuriating.
Yes, protesting against a policy that forces people to undergo a medical procedure against their will is “soooo STUPID.” God forbid that people, you know, stand up for their fundamental rights. God forbid that people fight back against policies that are morally wrong. Can’t have that. Obviously, when something violates people’s rights and is blatantly immoral, people should just accept it and not make any attempt to fight back against it in any way. Obviously, forcing people to undergo a medical procedure against their will is perfectly fine.
Not.
The fact that somebody could think this way is incomprehensible to me. It is admirable and courageous that airline workers put their jobs on the line to stand up for their right to bodily autonomy. To look at this situation and call the airline workers’ actions “soooo STUPID” is despicable, idiotic, and insulting. Any person who thinks this way is truly stupid.
bookmark_borderOur rights don’t come from government
Another post similar to yesterday’s, but with a message that is always worth repeating:
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Banning something that does not, in itself, hurt anyone is morally wrong. And this is true regardless of who is in office, regardless of how people voted, and regardless of the thoroughness of the process.